The total records harvested into the Science Data Catalog is displayed for each data contributor at the bottom left of each data contributor view. To view each individual record that have been harvested, click the numerical value next to "Total Records Harvested" or select the link to view Science Data Catalog Results.

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The total records with failed links is displayed for each data contributor at the bottom right of each data contributor view. To view each individual records with a message as to what failed please click the numerical value next to "Total Records with Failed Links" or the Harvest History link.

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The Harvest History tab displays a harvest summary for a specific time stamp. If you want to view you failed links please click on the Failed Records tab.

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For an example using the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center Data contributor, the Failed Records tab displays a list of failed records along with the reasons they failed the validation process. Bad Links: If displays an associated link in the field, this means the labeled hyperlink is incorrect or not currently active. If the field only displays no onlink tag, this means there is no online_link attribute found in the metadata record.

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If you wish to download the failed records as a comma separated value file you can click the download icon to prompt the file transfer. This file will contain the date processed, source file location and badlink field columns with the individual records as rows.

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The Science Data Catalog search tab begins with a display of all datasets that are described in the Catalog.

Ordering, Sorting & Display of Results

Change the number of results per page and sort search results by specific type.

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Types of Data Available

All records contain links via the colored button(s) beneath the description of the dataset. Sometimes the link will connect to a downloadable dataset, collection of datasets, and/or connect to data via APIs and map services.

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Related Terms

The Catalog only searches for the exact search terms entered. For example, the term "non-native plants" will not bring up records that have similar search terms such as "non-indigenous plant" or "exotic plant." We suggest running searches that include known synonyms to ensure more relevant results.

Use the search box to type a specific term on which to search (e.g. bathymetry). The total number of results in the Catalog will have the term 'bathymetry' found in metadata fields such as title, abstract, keywords, etc.

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From your set of results, you can:

• Browse through the listing for data.
• Use a Filter in the left column to narrow the search.
• Add an additional search term to 'bathymetry' in the text search box.
• Use the map to search for 'bathymetry' in a specific location.
• Delete the 'bathymetry' search term and start a brand new search.

Adding an Additional Query to Text Searches

Add an additional search term (e.g. Monterey Bay) and the results will narrow to include results with terms, 'bathymetry' AND 'Monterey Bay'.

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The final results might be narrowed down as a result of including both terms in the search. If you are looking for a very specific concept, it use “quotation marks” around the phrase to search for the exact wording.

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To start a new search, delete any previous search terms by clicking on the X to remove them. Remove all terms to start a brand new search.

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There are two ways to conduct a geospatial search on datasets:

• Geospatial keywords that describe the area of study (e.g. Alaska, Bakken Formation, Acadia National Park, Gulf of Mexico).
• Bounding box coordinates that give the limits of coverage of a dataset.

Geospatial keyword searches work best when searching for data from a very specific location. Research studies that are localized are usually described by metadata that contain those location terms in the Title, Abstract, and Keyword fields of the metadata. Search for geospatial keywords with the text search query.

Search against the bounding coordinates when looking for datasets for a more general geographic area, and not a very specific named place.

Draw a bounding box on the map to specify area of interest, or to use dropdown menus to select pre-defined areas for U.S. states, countries, and major water bodies.

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Example #1:

Draw a bounding box or polygon to specify a defined geographic area.

From this specific area of interest indicated as the tag, "geo:custom-defined", the results will include datasets whose bounding coordinates are either contained within, or overlap the defined area.

The initial results can be further refined for this region by a text search for a keyword or phrase which will narrow the results.

To revise a selected or custom-defined polygon, a user must first remove the existing "geo:custom-defined" selection by clicking on the X. Then they would click on "limit search by location" tool to define a new polygon of interest.

To initiate a completely new search, click on X remove all.

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Example #2:

Use the location search in conjunction with the Filters in the left column to focus on records which contain a specific Keyword, Data Source, etc.

For example, a user might be interested in the datasets described by the Keyword phrase 'oceans and estuaries'.

The filters in the left column 'adjust' to show a new selection of filters relevant to all of the records in the Catalog that contain 'oceans and estuaries' in the Keyword metadata. Users may also click on the keyword 'sidescan-sonar mosaic', to further narrow results.

The results set are now narrowed:

A search can be further refined by adding a location search using map tool. For example, add the Gulf of Mexico under the 'Limit by sea' dropdown menu.

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The metadata record(s):

• Must be in Extensible Markup Language (XML) file format to be machine readable (i.e. not a word document or pdf).
• Must follow the Federal Geographic Data Committee's (FGDC) endorsed Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM).

The USGS Data Management Website provides non-prescriptive data management guidance, best practices, tools, and resources in one convenient location. Learn to create metadata resources to contribute to the USGS Science Data Catalog. To learn more about metadata standards and metadata creation, see the About page.

The Science Data Catalog harvests metadata records from online sources. Metadata intended for inclusion in the Catalog should be organized in a single online source for harvest. Centers and programs can provide their metadata collections to the Catalog from their own public servers, or leverage a remote data management platform to manage and serve their records.

The Science Data Catalog can harvest metadata record(s) from three types of sources:

• Web Accessible Folder (WAF): A URL address that is an online public folder containing the metadata record(s) for harvest. Use this option if all metadata records are stored in one online location.
• Site Map XML: A URL address of a Site Map XML file that lists the URLs of metadata records hosted from multiple online locations. Use this option if the metadata are stored in different online locations or in a metadata catalog.
• ScienceBase: This is a collaborative data management platform for USGS and its partners which can host XML metadata on ScienceBase item pages. First contact sciencebase@usgs.gov to get started.

Once your FGDC CSDGM or ISO XML metadata is hosted in a WAF or a sitemap please contact sciencedatacatalog@usgs.gov to complete the connection to SDC. For ScienceBase, the ScienceBase Data Release Team will work with you to establish the connection upon release of your data in ScienceBase (to ensure that incomplete or unreleased records are not passed to the SDC). Please refer to the ScienceBase Data Release page for instructions.